Mike Parsons

Mike Parsons (born March 3, 1965 in New Zealand) is a surfer sponsored by the Billabong company who famously successfully surfed a 66-foot wave at Cortes Bank, CA in 2001, for which he was awarded $66,000, the highest prize ever awarded in the history of professional surfing. This money was awarded by the Billabong XXL competition which has run since 2001 paying tribute to the biggest waves ridden each year. This feat at Cortes Bank was popularised by the film "Billabong Odyssey". Parsons is famous for a video clip of him riding a wave about 65 tall at Jaws, shot from a helicopter, that many believed was the biggest wave ever surfed. Parsons recently broke his record on January 5, 2008, at Cortes Bank, when he was photographed surfing a wave that the Billabong XXL judged to be 70+ feet, which should put him in the Guinness Book of World Records, officially, for biggest wave ever surfed. Unofficially the biggest wave ever surfed remains Ken Bradshaw's wave at Log Cabins, Oahu on January 28, 1998, at over 80 feet.

He was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California in 2008. [cite news |first=Laylan |last=Connelly |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Influential surfers get due at Hall of Fame |url= |work=The Orange County Register|pages=Local 2 |publisher= |date=2008-07-26 |accessdate= ]

References

External links

* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=7nS_aR8XX_U Video of the wave "Jaws" at Maui (Hawaï), for the World Cup Champion of Tow In]